“I know the plans I have for you” (Jeremaih 29:11)
So, how is your new year going so far? We have entered 2022 with a new strain of Covid that produces fear for our health. Inflation that produces uncertainty for our future. Political unrest around the world that produces great concern for America and beyond. Plus, we have carried all the difficulties that ended 2021 into this year with us. Doesn’t sound very hopeful, does it? But indeed, it is hopeful – very hopeful.
There are two books in the bible that have the potential to fill us with hope if we will allow them to. They are the first and last books of the bible – Genesis and Revelation. These two books were written over a millennium, by forty different authors. Genesis was written in Hebrew, Revelation in Greek. I want us to focus on the first three chapters of Genesis and the last three chapters of Revelation. In the first three chapters of Genesis the curse begins. Now if you are like me you would like to drop kick Adam and Eve for handing that off to us. But then look at the last three chapters of Revelation and you will read in Revelation 22:3, “there shall be no more curse.” In Genesis death begins. In Revelation 21:4 we are told, “there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.” In Genesis we read of the tree of life disappearing from the presence of man. In Revelation 22:2 we read of a “river flowing down the center of heaven. On each side of the river stands the tree of life.” In Genesis we find God calling light into existence. In Revelation, God himself becomes light. (Revelation 21:23). In Genesis we are told that God created heaven and earth. In Revelation we learn about God creating a new heaven and earth.
I hope you are a person who embraces change, because we serve a God who can redeem, change, and transform not only human beings, but every aspect of his creation. God is in the process right now of altering Genesis into Revelation. Only God could design a perfect tapestry called the bible, that begins with a curse and ends with a multitude of blessings. Where God begins is only the beginning. It is not his final product.
So, if 2022 has started off looking more like a mix-up of Genesis in your life, just hold on to your faith, and watch where it ends in December. God will weave together a beautiful plan for your life throughout this coming year. For as perfectly as he has written his story from Genesis to Revelation, so perfectly he will be carefully writing and directing your life story this year……from January to December. Just watch and wait for it!
Darlene